A couple of months back we got our first taste of NECA’s long awaited take on Ripley, THE single most important character from the Alien franchise. Wave four included Jumpsuit and Compression Suit variants from the original Alien film. However, now we are in Aliens territory so the pants need to be a little higher and the hair a bit shorter. This figure is also made specifically to fit in the power loader vehicle that will be released later in the year.

In regards to her upcoming vehicle, I do have a Queen but am still debating on whether or not I want to invest in the power loader. Space and price concerns factor into that equation. I can only spread myself so thin when it comes to collecting big ticket items. Masters of the Universe Classics is going to hit me hard later in the year with Point Dread and all of those horrifying two-packs. On top of that NECA isn’t necessarily being too nice either with a giant Pacific Rim Kaiju and an extensive selection of “Ultimate” figures.

Thankfully Ripley is affordable, small, and not a pack-in for a giant power loader toy!

Sadly there were no cats in Aliens, so my hopes of building a Jonesy army have been dashed. Instead, Ripley is only packed with her flamethrower/pulse rifle combination weapon. I’m a realistic person and understand that even if NECA had the likeness rights for Newt (at least I believe I’ve heard they do not), that she wouldn’t be the pack-in figure to replace Jones. Newt would obviously require much more tooling, and probably drive the price of the figure up a bit. Would I have bought a “deluxe” set with Newt? In a second! But we don’t live in that type of world, at least right now anyway.

I was very happy with the likenesses of the previous Ripley figures. To be honest, though, when I first got this figure I thought the face was slightly off. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions though so I sat on her for a few days before pulling out the pen to scribe this review. After about a week of comparing her to the prior releases and watching the movie I’ve actually come around to the point that I think this may be the best likeness of the three. I also like the flesh-tone plastic they used instead of paint this go around. It makes the face look so much more natural. The hair is also matte which is another giant improvement.

I think that all around this figure is an improvement over the Alien versions. Just like how some people claim that Aliens was an improvement over Alien. I think those people are nuts, but I can respect and understand where that thought process comes from. They are both great but different movies. Same with all of the NECA Ripley figures. I find them all to be great but this one definitely edges out the efforts of the previous wave.

Now of course this begs the question if NECA plans to do anything else with the Ellen Ripley character? There have been no official announcements, and we’ve seen the next wave which is Isolation based. So we will get at least get a Ripley relative, and that sweet Nostromo suit again! I’m going to guess that we’ll at least see one more Ripley variant as a Toys ‘R’ Us exclusive closer to the holiday season. NECA loves to do those seasonal TRU exclusives, and it only makes sense to get some more use out of those molds.

Personally in the future I’d love to see the Alien 3 version of Ripley. I understand a lot of people aren’t a fan of the movie, but I like it and the shaved head look is bad ass. We also need somebody to keep that Dog Alien in check!

I’m really happy with this release! I was very pleased with the paint work on the previous two Ripley figures, and NECA somehow managed to make it even better this time. The switch the the flesh colored plastic was also a very wise choice. All around this is a great figure and will make that Aliens display even better. On top of that if you plan to pick up that Power Loader later this year you are going to need a pilot!

Ellen Ripley has just started hitting stores now at the usual price of around $20. I grabbed mine off of Amazon. The figure has some pretty early popularity so it goes in and out of being sold by the official NECA Amazon store. As always try to be patient, these figures will show up eventually. Ripley is well worth the wait.

The face sculpt on the pictured figure on the bottom of the card back looks a lot better than the4 actual figure in my opinion. I don’t really see a great likeness in this figure.
A Kenner recolor would be very cool.

I don’t really think either of them are Dutch perfect, but I think the one we got is a bit better than the one they show on the back. Sigourney is a really tough face to capture for some reason, no one seems to do it very well … but I do think these NECA ones are probably the best we’ve seen.